Poor Metoid

Metoid (aka Baba Kanoosh's aggro nut blaster son) is sicker than a dog. Are dogs that sick? So I am home tending to a nice toasty 103.9 fever and a "persistent non-productive cough." We say it is bird flu but none of the birds are coughing outside. OK, TFs are out til they fix the bug, any other events still going strong? Debt vs Death is up and on the boards what else?

And the winner is. . . Zenith!

Taking a commanding lead, Zenith has been voted to be the SG official uniform by members' choice! It was followed closely by Secret and a distant third was Bane 1.

The designer of Zenith was. . . well, um..... me.
(I didn't vote for it I swear!)

This costume is black with the red that is the #6 slot from the left

Upper Body --- Tights --- Armored Pads -- Red/Black
Shoulders --- Layered Pads -- Black/Red
Bottoms ---Chitin with Chiten Pattern -- Black/Red
Chest Detail -- Bullseye

I put the names of who designed what on the page if you are interested. Thank you all SO MUCH for participating! And congrats to um... me!

Warburg throwdown this Sunday at 5 pm Pacific! Get dressed for it!!! Let's show those heroes and villains what a beach party is REALLY all about!

You May Call Us ----- ARCHVILLAINS!

Chili Penguin, Thundar v.2, Azrharn, Dark Tzadkiel, Chaud Comme L'enfer, Bringer of Death, Lady Shadow Star stand over the fallen Liberty
Please cue up the Queen song because We Are the Champions, my friends!! That's right! You heard me correctly, we beat the Lord Recluse Strike Force and are the proud new owners of shiny badges and an SHO!

It was a slow start. But patience is a virtue and since we waited this long to do it, a few dances on Recluse's conference table will keep us entertained until we all arrived. We had 7 of the crew (and extended crew) there. Your truly, Azrharn (necro/dark MM), Chaud Comme L'Enfer (fire/thermal corr), Dark Tzadkiel (energy/dark corr), Chili Penguin (fire/cold corr), Thundar v.2 (EM/Inv Brute), Lady Shadow Star (stone/inv brute) and Bringer of Death (??/inv brute). Yes, that's right. There were 7 of us. We started with 8 (an /ela brute) but he was impulsive, annoying and a whiner and fortunately he left when things got a bit difficult! But I shall name no names because we perservered and stomped States and company into the pavement! Oh and did I mention we had no rad, no kins and no stone brutes?

The first mission is to defeat Crimson, escort a scientist to a computer and defeat a few longbow chasers. It was definitely mayhem with the ambushes and when I was knocked off the bridge, the scientist followed me over the side and we thought we were goners. He somehow managed to stay attached to my leg and we got him safely inside and forced the codes from him while beating Crimson to a bloody pulp for sending our alternate selves on all those Malta missions. Please note: you must lead the scientist with no stealths on the team at all, especially shadowfall!

With our codes in hand, Recluse sent us off to Warburg to steal the Orestes Rifle from the Malta group. Upon arriving, we run into the infamous Kronos Titan. We dispatched him and entered the facility and made our way to the back where The Slinger (AV) lay awaiting us. The Slinger is a MM and summoned waves and waves of bots to repel us, but alas, they were no match for Strike Force Tarantula. We get the rifle and head off to Nerva to dispatch with some heroes.

So here is where it starts to get a bit iffy. Our /ELA brute keeps running in before we are ready. We defeat Malaise and chase Swan and Mynx all over the complex. Valkyrie is last and rezzers and hits MoG, but alas, even she cannot stand against the 8 of us.

Fast forward to the future, where Back Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche, Manticore and Numina lay in wait. It is the future destroyed map of Atlas with random phasing of players (especially me). No real problems here.

And at last, we arrive to the finale. The clash we have all been anticipating: The Freedom Phalanx! Eight level 53 Heroes clustered under the globe in Atlas Park: Statesman, Positron, Manticore, Sister Psyche, Numina, Synapse, Back Alley Brawler and Citadel.
Azrharn looks down on the Heroes
We set up and Dark Tzadkiel makes the best pull on Numina ever. Synapse comes with her but Lady Shadow Star taunts him and keeps him busy while we hammer on Numina. At her last drip of health, she nukes and takes all of us out and our evil plan has been FOILED! We reassemble and try to pull again. She brings all her friends with her and we get pounded on. Positron farts and we all eat dirt.

Again, we reassemble with our friend the /ELA brute being negative all the while. We fire up some vengeance on his dead body, get a nice pull on Numina and are getting some really good kicks to the face in when Back Alley Brawler peers over the staircase wall and says "What are you kids doing down there?" They proceed to beat us to bloody pulps, with Chaud eating the end of a Knockout Blow and getting popped up 20 feet in the air! (I had a good view of this from where I lay on the ground!)
a view of the dead
At this point the /ELA leaves. We'd been talking about him relentlessly on the Friends channel and all hooted in delight when he quit the team. Amazing how one sourpuss can bring down the moral of the entire team. But the pulling isn't working. Dark Tzadkiel recommends rushing the platform. We will pick a target and Lady will taunt off the other 7 Heroes. Chili Penguin commits suicide in a pack of longbow so we can hit Vengeance on the team and our shivans. We rush the platform, Cap DCs, and we drop a bunch of nukes, some Serafina Shard and holding our breath, drop Numina!! We run for the plane, out of inspirations, and exit the mish!

Panting, we restock and head back in. We hit our groove with this method and whittle down the Heroes one by one. Sister Psyche is the next to go, followed by Positron, Manticore, Citadel, Synapse, and BAB. We had a couple of team wipes but nothing serious really. Even the pets seemed to stand up okay with a glowing red head.
Bringer of Death stands alone

But then -- the last man standing, the mighty Statesman

We are out of nukes. We are out of Shivans. I even used my last vial of DE bees! Ol' Blue and Red is hovering under the Atlas globe like a dark cloud over our heads. With a tightness in our throats, the penguin sacrifices himself yet again. We vengence up and then we charge. Cap wonders aloud, "Who'd have thought States was a runner?" We chase him here and there and when he overloads, the pets and corrupters die. I try to rez them with Howling Twilight but they are too far apart. Cap and Bringer chase States up Atlas's leg while I try to TP everyone into a pile for the next rez. States sees me, charges over and punches my face in. I drop instantly.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Back we go into mission. It's getting late, but victory is so close we can nearly taste it. We clash with States again. Again many of us die. I use an awake and just popped the break when the lightning falls from States' fist, killing me instantly. Only the brutes and Chaud are left standing. Cap yells that Unstoppable is dropping. He runs over and drops a wake to me, "Get up Azr. We need your help"

"Use me as vengeance bait!" yells Dark Tzadkiel, "use me!" It's cast, I turn on my debuff and my leadership toggles and then rez him. The team is getting back on it's feet. I'm running out of end and can bring forth no more pets. I am running into melee to heal the brutes praying "No lightning, no lightning, no lightning!!" Chili brings forth one last fireball and our powerful foe drops in a heap at our feet. We stand victorious!! We claim our synthetic hamidon enhancement (I get dam/range) and exit the mission with our shiny new badges and a spring to our step.

I'd like to thank all my friends who participated in the Strikeforce for the fun and the perseverence to overcome this challenge. This one is going down in the history books.

/em victory

Oh and here is where I am bragging about our win on the CoH boards! You'll see mention of our /ela brute a few posts down sine he hit 50 on our SF

It's showtime! LRSF

Put on your game faces and get ready to be cocked, locked and ready to rock. Chew gum and kickass people, it's showtime.

Az has already posted a strategy guide from the forums that can be found here.

I've been reading this strategy from Paragonwiki here.

Paragonwiki's version *might* newer since it refers to the final mission's heroes conning at level 53.

Lets go get 'em..

PDC selling secrets to Arachnos

Richard Fitzhenry seen here selling classfied information to Arachnos....

Oh wait, that's Ahne Toreph in disguise! Get this nifty outfit during missions in Faultline!

Hey all! Don't forget LRSF Sunday at 5 pm pacific! We have close to a full team so we should be good to go! We even have a brute with Taunt! woot!

Voting has been exciting on the SG Uniform Contest! We have a very close race!! The polls will close on Wednesday, so if you haven't already, vote! See post below for the details and the link to the costume page.

Safeguards! I've been saving up some on my toons for our old timer 50s. Let's schedule a night to do them! Unfortunately with Pirates 3 delivering soon I can't get on until around 9pm during the week, so maybe next Saturday sometime? I have available on a variety of toons: Kings Row, Steel, Sky, Bricks and quite possibly FF. Azrhiaz needs: Steel and IP

And finally Death Vs Debt! Who is greater!? Sign up for the side you want to play! We'll get our raid on in 2 weeks! Saturday, March 10th at 3pm Pacific if that works for everyone!

E. Rex Sean over the holidays

Who needs Exterminator on CoV?

I have the Exterminator badge mish for CoV, needed for an accolade. Anyone need it? Man I like the effects I added to this picture! Adobe FTW!

How to do some special stuff that is quite useless...

Click on picture to see larger view of details

...But can look interesting and provide for some witty banter. To change your in game font, go to this website here. You can pick what font you want out of c:windows/fonts. I used the comic book font and found it to be cool.. you will note it in the picture above. Note it doesn't change all fonts, just mainly windows and chat lines.

As for symbols...After much research and some help from a nice fellow with a global of Celz in Triumph I figured out the issues I had. I was attempting to copy a unicode "picture" (most likely a jpeg or such) and it wasn't taking. I tried downloading some free fonts to copy from and found them to be "exotic" i.e. the game wouldn't recognize them. Going to the start page and hitting charmap.exe in the Run bar worked but had very limited characters and you had to hit or miss which ones would work in-game. So I researched unicodes and found there are many websites with the characters and the codes, usually 4 letter/number combos. You can open up Microsoft Word, type in the 4 letter/number combo and then hit the alt button and the x key at the same time and they transfer to the symbol. Then highlight the symbol and hit control +c button. Go to in game and paste via control +v. The game takes any working unicode symbol when done that way.

Wiggles in Anticipation

Statesman TF Teaser

Looks like our typical team of scraps, blasters and tanks ain't gonna cut it.

Fortune Teller Badge Mission

Hi Guys, I am holding the Fortune Teller badge mission in case anybody missed it and needs it. Please let me know if you need that badge.
Thanks

Lord Recluse Strike Force

C'mon and lets make this official, the big daddy-o of them all is ON Sunday Feb 25 5ish PST - at last count from what I gathered from Az is:

Dark Tzadkiel
Azrharn
Thundar v2
Chaud (something French)
Chili Penguin

We have still have slots ready to go and if time's an issue, we can hash that out during the week. I think I can get Darknacht ss/drk brute (Ame's husband) to join too.

Tz

Send in your votes!

Well I was initially going to set up a poll here on the site, but since I'm getting tells with votes, I figure you can just send an offline to @azrhiaz with the name of your favorite costume! I suggest not voting for your own, but you can. Or you can email me online or ingame with your vote.

Link to costumes here

And this is why you can't nuke Hamidon...

Who's that in the blue toga? *grin*

and the Entries are. . . !

Here is the link for the contest entries!! We have many wonderful choices and a big gold star for all that entered for your creativity!! Great job!

Voting will commence next week!

Lord Recluse Strike Force

Yes, again I bring this up! Someone is trying to schedule a LRSF on the boards, so this is his thing. But I'm suggesting it for this Sunday at 2:30 pacific and wanted to know who would like to run it with us. So far it's:

Azrharn
Dark Tzadkiel
a SS/ELA brute from the boards

Anyone else interested? Please note: you will be required to bring nukes and shivans.

Invent a Bug!

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=312062&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD

Thread here covering the new headache coming to CoX...inventions! Here is the dev in charge of it:

http://www.cityofheroes.com/game_update9.html

I am not finding any sense of urgency or desire for this mess to get going. I hope they invent a channel just for it so the airwaves aren't clogged with OMG! I got this anyone want to trade?

--Baba "Bah Humbug" Kanoosh

PS: Az says: SG Uniform Preview page will be up over the weekend. If you haven't emailed your entry by Friday, you are S.O.L.

Candy, hearts and flowers....

Okay, well maybe it was more like council, spiders and snaptooth. Either way the valentines event is up and running! Debt and Death Brigade members unite! Sworn enemy was kind enough to join Chaud for some fun in pocket D. Like last year, there's a hero and villian part to this event, two missions for each and then the infamous Snaptooth missions. This time you can choose from various awards, including costume pieces. Chaud got a shiny new partygoer badge, nothing better to give a girl for valentines. :)

Deadline in 4 Days

SG Uniform Contest deadline is fast approaching! Get your entry in by Feb. 14th to win 2 months of free game time and one million influence! Please see this post for details

No Debuffs? No Problem, we just had fun instead

You may....

...note a certain...

...theme here from our foray into Recluse's Victory. Or should I say Victories? No, we had no debuffs. No, we didn't beat any AVs. But we had a great time. I counted at least three coalitions represented, Posse Commitatus, Protectors of Tomorrow, and Wings Over Paragon, I am sure there was more but I lost count. We had two full teams going and a third started. The CoV players had fun with us, we won some, they brought a TON and won some, we drank caffeine and waited them out and won some more. Good times had by all once everyone realized we didn't have a prayer versus the AVs without some serious debuff specialists. We earned some prestige and enjoyed a lot of goofing off, which is straight DB style--that's how we roll yo!

Highlights? Some brute named Krudo getting owned on more than one occassion. The team I led wiped in like 10 seconds by 5 corrupters and 4 brutes. Yelling Ghost Widow! THen we all met in the resurrector and yelled, OK MAKO! Thanks for all who showed and we need another coalition event again soon, great bringing the whole community in for group fun.

Ok I am off to power level my rad/rad defender , I understand where he belongs now.

Dear Az, Did you know of this and why then haven't we exploited it?

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=7419142&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

All we need is a team of 8 Villians and we can be rich I say! Rich! Oh yeah we were going to RV this weekend too....hmmmmmmm Mu hahaaaa haaaaaaa

How to Draw A Chaud Woman with Adobe

Step #1...Follow the footsteps of the great ones.

Meet the awesome artwork of Adam Hughes. Known as the "Good Girl Artist," he currently is one of the hottest artists to work covers etc. Since I suffer from copy cat-itus, a wretched condition where I only draw well from others photos or art (not from my scratch i.e. from my empty head), I figure a Chaud Woman must be of Adam Hughes' caliber. (Sidenote if you have time Google the word "Chaud").

Step #2...Realize why they are great

So when I get done with my sketch I know why I never went into the art industry--talent like Adam Hughes scared me out the effort. I was better a few years ago, but am seeming to have some rust to knock off.

Step#3...Get with the times!

Next I scan my sketch using my new spiffy HP 3310 all-in-one printer. Not a bad home multi-purpose printer (shameless plug for HP in hopes I get a small stipend or maybe a t-shirt). Once scanned I send the image to Adobe Photoshop Elements to do clean-up. I also wish to experiment with the effects with this awesome program (the plugs keep falling out of me like bad words at a sailor's house!). Now I plug (ha- I said "plug") in my Wacom tablet which enables me to draw with a "pen and tablet". I love this tool and it is a very cool gift if you have any friends or relatives that really like to draw or tinker with photos. (I just can't stop plugging stuff! Someone help me!) I then create a layer to trace the lines I want to keep and start to add some tones (I could use color but wanted a sketch look).

Step #4...Shady Shading

So now the experimenting truly begins. I can add some color, then smudge, blur and thus blend almost like a pencil drawing. Looks better but the downside is it very time consuming. The upside? If I used a pencil and eraser my living room is covered in eraser chunks.

Step #5...Take a break and have fun this is all just a hobby

Words I say to myself when I glance over at the incredible art of these comic books folks and then stare at my mess. It is fun none-the-less. I may just print the outlines and then render the rest with pencil, either way when I am done I will post it for you Chaud. The progess is going along much faster while I search for a job. Being bored and amused with these here computer thingys, I thought I would post this mess for fun. Hope to see as many of your 50s this weekend in RV.

--Baba

What Say You?

The players ask Posi what the deal is! WarCry's Ask Positron A few interesting comments though nothing to dance about. Next month's guy in the hot seat will be none other than Statesman! Ask him something, anything. I dare ya! And maybe someone here can tell me what an "Akimbo Pistol" is? :scratches head:

Entries are rolling in for the uniform contest!! Fortunately, we haven't gotten any more bathing suit entries. :grin: Remember the deadline is Valentine's Day and that's only 7 days away! Hurry and send in your stuff! Otherwise your Free 2 Months will be going to someone else! See post below for all the details!

Upcoming events!
-Deep is going to run Eden Trial Friday night around 8 pm pacific.
-Chaud and Baba are organizing an AV beat-down in RV for Saturday. (6 pm Pacific)
-They are tenatively throwing the idea of a 4x4 PvP tourney around in the forums. I'd prefer to bring my own team so if anyone has an interest in a little arena action, post it. You know how unreliable these can be, so take it with a grain of salt. When I hear more details on it, I'll update this.

Congrats to Cap on earning over a MILLION prestiege for Paragon Defense Corps. Now if only he'd earn that on one of his DB toons, we'd be in business! However, rumors abound that PDC will be gearing up towards becoming a raid ready SG so we might be able to go in soon and steal their Manticore posters! Woot!

We are chugging away towards almost halfway there to getting the first secure plot, guys! Keep up the great work earning prestiege! We'll be able to get more than one IoP with a secure plot so more buffs for all. You know, if they ever bring that stuff back online. . .

RV needs to be smacked

I read where Chaud wanted to lay waste to evil doers in RV. I am game and will try to call up some reinforcements this weekend. Anyone else interested? Chaud when would be a good time for you? We will need two full teams at least so the more the merrier.

but.....

okay, not an offical entry...no shoulders :( But....it was worth a shot. Come on. :)

Costume Contest!! Design the SG Uniform!

Well Meg got the ball rolling on this one so here we go! Now that we are a top SG on Triumph, it's time to start representing ourselves around Paragon City. When we walk by, people will gape, tremble and admire us! "They belong to the Debt Brigade! I'm so jealous!" will surely follow your every move!

SG Uniform Contest Details
In the character creator (DO NOT ACTUALLY BUY THE COSTUME!!), please design an official uniform! Take a screen shot of the front and the back and make sure that the type and styles are noted. You wlll be choosing pieces for these areas:

Top
Bottom
Shoulders

The rest will be customizable by the toon. Therefore, you can choose your own style of boots, gloves, belt, headgear. Do not submit uniforms that have capes, auras, wings, trenchcoats. Just the basics as we will only be looking at the three main pieces. Do not use a character that look like yours! Anonymous please!

Requirements:
The costume must have our team colors of red and black.
The costume must include the DB logo.
The costume must be available to all players, so do not use options like Justice, Samurai, epaulets, santa hats etc. Make sure the option is available for both male and female toons.
You must have a toon in DB (or DBR) that has earned at least 1000 prestiege.

Limit of 3 submissions per person. Send pictures to this email and I will assemble them anonymously on a webpage for all to see, comment and vote on. In the event of a tie, the Grand Poo Bahs will make the final decision.

What You Win
The creator of the official SG uniform will win:

60 Days of Free Game Time (2 months worth! woot!)
-and-
One Million Influence (or Infamy if you prefer)
Serial codes will be sent via email so if you are not willing to give that out, you only get the influence!

Happy Creating All! Deadline for entries will be Valentine's Day (February 14th, 2007)

---

BTW, the Debt Brigade Reserve is now up and running. To put your inactive, non prestiege earning toons in, contact @chaud woman, @azrhiaz, or @tech-blade to get invited. You will be coallied with DB and will have access to the inspir dispenser and all the TPers. You are welcome to move toons back into the main group at any time or for raids. Please remember our inactive kick policy is 30 days in DB, so if you are having to log a toon in do so, or move them into DBR (where there is no kick policy)